Hot take: Quit using impact guns on oil drain plugs unless you want to be the guy who helicoils every third pan

I work at a shop in Nashville and I swear half the stripped oil pans I see are from guys who think a 1/2 inch impact is fine for tightening a drain plug. I get that speed matters when you're flat rate, but cross threading a pan on a 2018 Honda Civic adds an hour of labor for a helicoil job that costs the customer $150. The other side says torque wrenches slow them down and most plugs are steel anyway so they hold up fine. But I've seen five pans this month alone that needed replacement because someone zipped them on too tight with an air gun. What do you do on your own car, hand torque or just send it with the impact?

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ben_lopez257d ago

I read somewhere that most drain plugs only need like 18-25 ft lbs which is barely more than hand tight. You can hit that with a stubby ratchet in the same time it takes to grab an impact.